Belgium's ice princess on the rise

[gsk8]

Belgium is a small country in Western Europe that is more known for chocolate than for figure skating. Cycling, soccer and tennis are far more popular sports, but the indefatigable Kevin van der Perren has drawn attention to figure skating by winning the country's first medals at the European Championships in 50 years.

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[Joesitz]

She's a very promising skater from what little I've seen of her, but unfortunately, she is not from a BigSix Fed.

[mot]

Thanks for the interview / article. I too took a notice of her when I saw her at one of the Junior Grand Prix event. Lovely to see some young up-and-coming talents from small federations. Good to hear that the situation in Belgium is improving because of the success of Kevin. All the best for Ira and other skaters from Belgium. (BTW, the young male skater from Belgium was pretty promising too, I thought. He's quite different from Kevin, while I can see that Ira looks up to Kevin and Jenna to some extent.)

[Olympia]

I'm always thrilled to see a promising skater from a small federation. The more, the merrier! Hey, until about 2007, you couldn't find a smaller skating federation than South Korea. One never knows where the fire from heaven will land, and when it touches some kid from Belgium or Lithuania or wherever, this serves to enrich skating. It also increases skating's fan base, which is good for all of us. If skating were reduced to a dilettante sport enjoyed only by select audiences along the U.S. coasts, throughout Canada, and in Moscow and Leningrad, it would be merely a more expensive cousin of curling or tossing the caber. Bring it on, Belgium! I'll look for this lady on YouTube.

[seniorita]

Belgium is a small country in Western Europe that is more known for chocolate than for figure skating.

So true but it is even more known for its frites

Fantastic article, Thank you!
I feel I need to root for her among the European ladiesThe good thing is she has drawn attention here cause I ve seen some photos in newspaper with her name after Euros and Worlds, it was in dutch so no idea what they were saying but still